2015 Posts

One of the most commonly broken New Year’s Resolutions out there is to “learn something new.” These days – with fast paced lives and busy schedules – it’s tough to find time for that unfinished book or stay up to date on the news. This challenge is what has led to the rapid growth of the audio entertainment industry, and it brings us to this week’s #WebsiteWednesday: Elon.xyz.

Recently featured on Product Hunt (a curation of the latest websites, apps, and technology products today), Elon.xyz is a platform where users can submit articles, turn them into beautifully narrated audio recordings, and then listen to them at their leisure. That means you don’t need to wait until your workday is over to read about what’s happening in the world today; you can enjoy your favorite blogs and articles while you work!

When it comes to creating a narration, the opportunities are endless. We’ve seen the audio world open up to a myriad of new genres, with podcasts for personal stories, murder mysteries, historical events, stand up comedy…the list goes on and on. With Elon.xyz, you no longer have to wait for your favorite content to appear on the latest podcast feeds – the audio world is your proverbial oyster.

Creator Alan Garrec has hit the nail on the head when it comes to using technology to make life easier and more efficient, and he did it using his short, memorable .xyz domain name. Curious why they chose this particular name? Here’s what they had to say about their domain:

“As any startup knows finding a decent .com is either very time consuming or very costly. We literally just tried punching in various names and found Elon.xyz was available for $1, so it stuck”

We know how challenging the startup grind can be. We also know the importance of a domain name when it comes to a young company’s success. Well done Elon.xyz for finding a creative solution to a problem that plagues too many young entrepreneurs! And thanks to them, tackling some of that reading list won’t just be another New Year’s Resolution that you never quite get to. Get a head start this year and start submitting your favorite articles now!

XYZ has done it again! We just launched .Cars, .Car, and .Auto – the complete line of new domains developed specifically for the automotive industry.

With this new portfolio of domains, automotive businesses can promote a portfolio of brands, market new vehicle models, connect customers with local lots, and perhaps one of the best reasons – to register their city name or geography.

Read the full story about .Cars / .Car / .Auto and check out some of our early adopters at the Go.Cars blog.

The XYZ mission is to bring choice, accessibility, and innovation to the internet with flexible naming options for small businesses, communities, and individuals around the world.

With the support of #GenXYZ, .xyz continues to pave the way as the most popular new domain. Even though we’re 1.5 years young with over 1.5 million domains registered, short and memorable .xyz domains are still very much available!

It was once thought that all the good domains would sell out immediately…but that’s not the case. It’s easy to forget that there are millions of short and marketable domains, and even great domains that were once registered just might become available for you to pick up and call your own.

Don’t know what’s out there? We’ve created a live tracking system that shows how many different combos are still available at gen.xyz/premiums. When you’re ready, head over to gen.xyz to get the domains you’ve always wanted (pro tip: click “bulk search” to get them all at once)!

Here at XYZ, we love Thanksgiving. You may have seen our Office Thanksgiving Feast onInstagram orTwitter. Yumm! But we also love a good deal (ahem, Black Friday)!

This weekend, be sure to head over toGoDaddy, Namecheap, or many of our other partners’ websites. Why? Because, sales! For this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, many of our awesome partners are offering incredible discounts on the most popular new way to end your domain – .xyz. For a complete list of .xyz Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, check out the full list below.

So don’t worry – you don’t have to fight the crowds at the mall this year. You can stay in your PJs and keep eating those Thanksgiving leftovers. And you can have the domain you’ve always wanted at prices you’ve only dreamed of.

This month, we’ve been honored to be part of two exciting hackathons from coast-to-coast: from Boston Hacks at Boston University, to the very far west at the University of Southern California’s HackSC. With apps, software, and websites all around us in our daily lives, it’s no wonder why so many students are striving to become the next best developer!

For this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’re highlighting HackForPlay.xyz, a free game developed by a Japanese small business that teaches elementary and middle school kids how to code.

With their mission to make learning code fun for all ages, HackForPlay.xyz developed an “action RPG” game to do just that. While it might look like a run-of-the-mill role-playing game, you have to get creative and “hack” the code to defeat your enemies and pass through roadblocks.

Established in 2014, Hack For Play hosts training programs for students and has already received awards for their innovative workshops. In a country where people use mobile devices a lot more than computers, it isn’t uncommon to find elementary and middle school kids who haven’t even learned how to type yet.

But through Hack For Play, they learn to swiftly navigate the keyboard, conquer their RPG stages by manipulating the code, and before you know it (and even the students themselves), they’ve become junior programmers!

The game itself is free for anyone through their website. What’s awesome is how the creators also host workshops for these pre-teen kids, and on occasion, even sessions where the kids partner up with their parents to conquer the slimes, dragons, and monsters with code.

Do you have what it takes to clear the stages of HackForPlay.xyz? Test it out yourself and let us know how you fare – we’re all ears @XYZ.

We sure had “a whale of a time” at ICANN’s 54th conference in Dublin, Ireland. It feels like just yesterday that we launched .xyz to the world, when in reality there have already been seven ICANN conferences since then!

ICANN, the organization that oversees the entire internet naming system, hosts these global public meetings to discuss how to make the internet a better place. This is also a great opportunity for us to catch up with all of our partners throughout the world.

Across the world to Dublin

Dublin was a nice break from the Southern California heat wave, where we had the opportunity to meet in-person with more than 50 of our partners at the Dublin Convention Centre.

One of the many highlights was the welcome gala at Dublin’s famous Dame Lane. Themed “That Night in Dublin,” we ate and drank the Irish way with other conference attendees.

We also visited Google’s Ireland office, which is punnily located on Google Docks.

If you find yourself in Dublin, Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud is a must-try. We wined and dined with our trusty registrar partners, Namecheap.

And to cap off a successful week, we celebrated Raedene’s birthday, who’s an integral part of the team that supports all of the .xyz backend magic over at CentralNic.

At XYZ, we continue to be committed to the Chinese market and are making significant strides towards becoming one of the few officially recognized domain extensions in China! From major tech giants, startups, all the way to individual internet users, .xyz domains are being adopted and will only continue to spread across the world.

Since our launch over a year ago, .xyz has maintained its position as the most popular new global domain, with 32% of all .xyz registrations coming from China. It’s amazing to see the support from the Chinese market through domains like 8.xyz, which was recently auctioned off in Macau for ¥521,000 RMB (appx $81,000 USD).

As we get closer and closer to becoming China-official, we want to make sure that you’re registering your names, business ideas, keywords, hobbies, or future projects in .xyz at your favorite Chinese domain retailer. This way, you and your websites are ready to go live in China when the time comes – and we can’t wait to see them featured alongside our current favorites on gen.xyz/live.

P.S. If you’re already an owner of .xyz domains, please be sure to renew and use them. We wouldn’t want you to release the great domains names you’ve already secured. Thank you for your support.